If you want to learn how to buy e-liquid – and you don’t want to spend a lot of time reading about it – you’ve come to the right place. You can find buyer’s guides online for every aspect of vaping, and each one tries to be longer and more comprehensive than the rest. There’s certainly a place for that, and if you’d like to spend an entire day reading about e-liquid, there are plenty of websites willing to accommodate you. In this article, though, we’re going to do something a little different. We’re going to give you an e-liquid buying guide that gets to the point, gives you the answers you need and sends you on your way. We hope you enjoy.

Why You Need an E-Liquid Buying Guide

There must be many hundreds of different e-liquids in the world today, and more are coming out all the time. You’ve got different styles of e-liquid for different types of vapers, and there are now more different flavor profiles available than any one person could ever hope to try. On top of that, a new type of e-liquid – nicotine salt e-liquid – is becoming more popular, and unless you’re using the right vaping equipment, nicotine salt e-liquid will provide a horrible vaping experience. This guide’s purpose is to help ensure that you always buy e-liquid you love and never waste your money on a vape juice that you don’t like.

E-Liquid Flavor Profiles

When it comes to e-liquid, flavor is everything. Some little details of an e-liquid can be less than ideal, and those things won’t matter much to you if you love the flavor. On the other hand, if you don’t like an e-liquid’s flavor, it doesn’t matter how perfect the other aspects of that e-liquid are. If you’re not completely happy with your vaping experience as it is, it’s time to begin investigating some different e-liquid flavor profiles. The good news is that there has never been more variety in the world of e-liquid flavors than there is right now. Are you still using the same tobacco or menthol e-liquid that you used when you first started vaping? It’s time for a change. Some of the most popular e-liquid flavor profiles today include:

• Custard e-liquids
• Bakery e-liquids
• Ice cream e-liquids
• Cereal e-liquids
• Candy e-liquids

No matter how outlandish your idea of the perfect e-liquid flavor might be, it’s likely that someone out there has exactly that flavor profile – so get out there and experiment until you find it.

Sweetened vs. Unsweetened E-Liquids

You’ve probably noticed that all of the e-liquid flavor profiles mentioned in the previous section are sweet. There’s a good reason for that; e-liquids with sweet flavor profiles are the best-selling vape juices by a wide margin. Everyone loves an e-liquid that tastes exactly like a chocolate chip cookie or a bowl of fruity cereal.

At some point during the evolution of the vaping industry, someone figured out that if you add a bit of sweetener to an e-liquid, you can really get those sweet flavor profiles to explode on the palate. It’s a bit like the difference between drinking a citrus-flavored mineral water and an orange soda with sugar. In comparison to the sweetened beverage, the unsweetened one seems almost flavorless. Likewise, sweetened e-liquids have flavors that really pop.

While sweetened e-liquids are certainly delicious, keep in mind that they also shorten coil life. The sweetener will leave a dark residue on your coil that eventually creates a pervasive burned flavor when you vape.

Nicotine Strength

If you’re buying e-liquid for your first vaping device, you’ll need to select a nicotine strength for the e-liquid. That can be a daunting task if you’ve never vaped before. To figure out what you need, check the specifications of the vaping device that you’ll be using. Does the device use a sub-ohm atomizer coil with a resistance under 1.0 ohm? A sub-ohm device can produce extremely large vapor clouds. To avoid overwhelming yourself with too much nicotine, you should choose an e-liquid with a lower nicotine strength. The most popular nicotine strengths for sub-ohm vaping devices are 3 and 6 mg. Choose a higher nicotine strength if your device doesn’t use a sub-ohm coil. If you’re new to vaping and are using a small vape pen or pod vaping system, the ideal nicotine strength for you may be anywhere from around 12-50 mg. Try starting at 18-25 mg and adjusting from there.

Nicotine Salt

Nicotine salt is one of the most exciting developments to hit the vaping industry in a while. Because nicotine salt e-liquid is less alkaline than standard e-liquid, it’s easier to inhale at higher nicotine strengths. A typical nicotine salt e-liquid can have a nicotine strength as high as 50 mg. With nicotine strengths that high, you should use a lower-output vaping device such as a pod vaping system if you’re going to use nicotine salt e-liquid. If you use a vaping device optimized for direct-to-lung inhaling, you should not buy a nicotine salt e-liquid unless it has the same nicotine strength as the e-liquid you’re currently using.

VG/PG Ratio

Vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol are the two major components of any e-liquid. VG is thick, and it creates very large vapor clouds. Many people like that. The more VG an e-liquid contains, the more viscous it becomes. An extremely thick “Max VG” e-liquid will only give you a good vaping experience if you’re dripping the e-liquid directly from the bottle into a rebuildable dripping atomizer (RDA). If you’re using a standard tank, though, it’s better to begin with a thinner 50/50 ratio and work your way up to higher-VG e-liquids later if needed. It’s important to error on the thin side because an e-liquid that’s too thick won’t absorb efficiently into the coil of a vaping tank. If the e-liquid doesn’t absorb quickly, you’ll get harsh “dry hits” when you vape.

Glass vs. Plastic Bottles

As you continue to vape, you may one day develop a preference for glass or plastic e-liquid bottles. Plastic bottles hold plenty of e-liquid, and squeezing a bottle is a very easy way to dispense your vape juice. Most people prefer plastic bottles. However, glass bottles are more inert and are less likely to interact with the volatile flavor compounds in e-liquid.

Jason Artman is the owner and author of eCig One. A professional freelance writer and SEO consultant with more than a decade of experience, Jason works with vaping companies around the world to increase their targeted web traffic and improve their revenue

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